Hacker and the Hologram
by Reno'sDemon
Summary: Jack didn't die when Helios crashed into Pandora, he just went into a deep sleep mode, waiting the day when some poor sap would stumble across the wreckage and wake him up. Twenty years pass before it happens and the poor sap isn't a poor sap at all. It's Rhys' tech genius niece and right hand at Atlas. Pretty, smart, and a badass? Jack won't deny he's smitten.
1. Chapter 1

This is also on my Wattpad account, OkamiWolf87

* * *

"Aw, come on Dad!" I whined, folding my arms across my chest and pouting at him. "You said when I was older that I could explore Helios!"

"I did." He sighed. "And I wish you had forgotten. I don't want to go through that again."

"I know Dad." I replied, the stubbornness leaving my body as I looked at my left hand. When I was five, I had been bold enough to go exploring inside the wreckage of Helios with my Skag Pup. I hadn't been as smart then as I was now and I went to crawl through a hole that wasn't stable. Long story short, it collapsed, catching me underneath it. My left arm was crushed and the left side of my face was damaged. My Uncle Rhys had outfitted me with a mechanical arm and an ECHO eye implant and since I had an aptitude with electronics, and having my uncle's gift with computers, had myself outfitted with a temple matrix port when I was older. When I was old enough, Uncle Rhys had gotten me an internship under him at Atlas where I became his right hand. Yvette made the joke when I joined Rhys at Atlas that I was a female copy of him. To embrace the joke, I started dressing like him, all in black. He didn't care, he thought it was hilarious.

"But I'm older now, Dad. Older and smarter." I told him. "I'm not that little girl anymore. You know I can take care of myself."

"I know you are. I'm just worried that you'll get hurt again, or worse." He replied. "That place hasn't been thoroughly explored since it crashed, there's no telling how dangerous it can be."

"Since you don't trust the place, Dad, then trust me. I'll be okay and I'll have Kiki with me. She's no longer that Pup she was back then. She's a Badass Skag now. Together, we'll be able to get out of any spot of trouble we may find ourselves in." I told him, reaching down to pet the Skag where she lay beside me.

"Might as well let her go." A voice chimes up and we both look over at Yvette as she enters the room. "You know she won't stop bothering you otherwise." The woman smiled. "Rhys has rubbed off too much on her. She wants to explore Helios and she won't let anyone stop her. Just be lucky she's asking you for your blessing to go."

He scowled at her. "You're supposed to have MY side!"

"Kira's young, Vaughn, let her have her adventures." My Godmother replied.

After a long moment, my father huffs a sigh. "Alright." He looked up at me. "Just promise me that you two will be okay."

I hugged him while Kiki barked. "I promise Dad. If I get into trouble that I can't get out of, I'll send Kiki for help."

"Be careful, please." He pleaded.

"We will Dad." I assured him, kissing his cheek.

I hugged Yvette. "Have fun kid and be careful."


	2. Chapter 2

This is also on my Wattpad account, OkamiWolf87

* * *

An hour later found me and Kiki wandering through the upper levels that had survived the crash, looking for useful items and other goodies when we found the jackpot. We pushed open a door and just stood there.

From Uncle Rhys' descriptions, I knew this place and my jaw dropped. "No Way." I murmured in awe as we entered carefully. Besides the gigantic statues being toppled and some of the larger pieces being flung every which way, the office was still intact. Kiki looked at me and whined. She was just as eager to explore this place as I was.

"Go sniff around, but be careful. If you find anything interesting, let me know, 'kay?"

With a bark of agreement, the large Skag was bounding off and I headed to the desk. Being bolted to the floor, the desk hadn't moved and while it took me a few minutes, I located the large chair that had used to sit behind the desk. Moving it back into its proper place, I sat in the chair. Kiki is coming back, a hat in her jaws, which she offers to me.

"What's this?" I took it from her and looked it over. It was a cowgirl hat, brown in color with silver medallion decorations around it. It looked a little ragged from the crash, a little dusty from the years, but it looked good overwise. I praised her. "Good find, girl." I placed it on my head and turned to the computer as Kiki bounded off again in search of more treasures. A glance with my ECHO eye told me that the computer could get power, but I'd have to reconfigure some things first. It took some doing, but I got it and settling behind the computer again, put fingers to keys and got to work powering it up. Closing my eyes, I let my fingers guide me as I felt my way into the system. I was doing good, browsing through all the information the former Hyperion base had to offer when I found something I couldn't reach. Regular hacking wasn't going to cut it any longer. I would need to dive deep into the computer to reach that something.

Digging into the pouch at my hip, I withdrew my matrix link cable and hooked into the computer. The moment I did though, the computer seemed to come to life all its own, lighting the room with an intense light. Sound crackled and I heard a garbled voice, full of static. There's the sound of coughing and I hear a male voice, clear as day, comment, "Wow! I thought I was dead."

"I guess being in the computer system when Helios went down saved you." I comment, removing the input jack from both ends and putting it away. Kiki had come to sit at my side, on alert.

It took a few moments, but a glowing blue hologram of a figure began to appear until it took the form of a tall male. I blinked, recognizing him from some of the old posters and advertising boards. Big Bad Boss of Hyperion himself. Handsome Jack. And damn, was he handsome.

I smiled and placing my elbows on the desk, rested my chin on my hands and regarded the hologram. Oh, this day just keeps getting better and better. "Well, well, well. Look what the hacker dragged from the system."  
But there was no way I'd be telling anybody this part of my adventure. They'd all flip out. I knew what Jack has done in the past from the others, but that didn't mean I'd have to be terrified of him. Just on my guard.

He turned and looked at me. After a minute, he blinked, taking in the robotic arm, ECHO eye and temple matrix. "You look like that Rhys kid, with the arm, the eye and the temple matrix implant. But you're a girl. Who are you?"

"Rhys is my uncle. My name is Kira." I replied. "This is Kiki."

He looked over the Skag as she did the same to him. "You have a Skag. As a pet."

"I raised her from a Pup."

"I was unaware of the kid having a family."

"His best friend Vaughn is my father."  
He blinked and drew back a bit. "That dork is your dad?" He smiled. "How could a nerdy guy like that make something as pretty as you?" His grin turned wolfish. "Your mom must have been hot."

I shrug. "I wouldn't know. She died not long after I was born. My dad was lucky to have all his friends to help raise me." I replied, petting Kiki.

He's silent for a few minutes. "You're not scared of me."

I look up at him and sitting back in the chair, propped my booted feet up on the edge of the desk and pulled together that air I acquired when I was at Atlas. The genius prodigy who co-ran one of Pandora's leading weapons manufacturing companies with a firm hand and a keen eye. "I lead Atlas besides Rhys, running it with a firm hand and a keen eye. I've raised a Skag, one of Pandora's most dangerous four-legged creatures, since she was a Pup. I've fought against psychos and with bandits. I took down a Badass Bullymong with only a Maliwan Incendiary pistol at my side and Kiki at my back. There's very little I'm scared of. You? You're a cute cuddly bunny compared to what I've faced."

He reached out a hand and took control of my mechanical arm, raising it up and moving it as if to choke me with it. With a smug smile at him, I removed it and held it up, giving the arm a tiny flip to position the hand so it was giving him the finger. "Nice try, sweetheart. I have had Bullymongs, Threshers, and whatever else grab my arm and destroy it when I've used it to defend. I went through countless arms that way until Rhys had the idea to make it detachable on purpose. You trying to threaten me with it? Not going to work."

"Smart and feisty." He chuckled. "I like you. So tell me, cupcake, what's a pretty thing like you doing in the bowels of this old thing?"

"Adventure, curiosity, and maybe find some old Hyperion data that we could put to use." I replied. "I had tried to explore when I was five, but that backfired."

"What happened? Daddy stop you?" He taunted.

"I wished he had." I replied and then explained. "I'm determined to the point I'm stubborn. Uncle Rhys had been telling me all these stories about Hyperion's glory days, about how it had been his dream to sit behind this very desk and I guess it's kind of his fault that I went exploring. Kiki had been just a Pup then. I remember seeing something on the other side of this pile of rubble, something shiny, and like the ever-curious child, I wanted to see what it was. I found a hole and went to crawl through it and that's when it happened. I must have hit the support that was holding it up and the whole pile collapsed on me, crushing my arm and damaging my face to the point that I lost my eye. Like a child I was then, I was scared, screaming. Kiki went to get help. Uncle Rhys fitted me with a mechanical arm and ECHO eye. My dad wanted to make me promise never to go into the depths of Helios again while I was recovering and learning how to use my new arm and eye."

"Yet here you are." He commented.

"Because," I smiled. "Even at that age, I was smart. I still wanted to find out what that shiny thing was so I countered. I wouldn't go exploring Helios again on the condition that I was allowed to do so when I got older and was more able to take care of myself."

"Did you ever find out what the shiny thing was?" He sounded curious.

"I found this place first."

He chuckled and looked around. "Yeah, this is a nice office, isn't it?"

I turned the chair around and looked out the huge ceiling to floor windows. Windows which were just now empty holes, looking out at the cliffs use beyond. "Must have been a hell of a view, looking down on Pandora."

"Close your eyes." I hear him instruct softly and trusting him, do so. I feel a spark at my temple matrix port and jerk back opening my eyes. "It's just me, relax." He soothed and resting back against the chair, closed my eyes. I feel that spark again and then I find myself back in that same office, but it's cleaner, the air fresher, and it took me a minute, but I realized that I was seeing this very office before Helios crashed into Pandora. It was magnificent. I'm urged to turn around and I do, giving a gasp at the beautiful view before me. Pandora rested before me, floating in the vast expanse of space, the sun just starting to peak out from behind the planet.

' _This is the view I saw every morning.'_ His voice glides across my subconscious.

"For a fucked-up planet on the surface, it's beautiful." I replied. The humming spark leaves my temple and I open my eyes to see Jack leaning against the edge of the desk next to me as we both looked out the windows.

"It's the only reason why I was up so early, just for that view." Kiki sat between us and he was petting her, running a hologram hand along her shoulder. I didn't see her objecting to his static touch, so I guess she liked it. Probably felt like a massage.

I had never been to Helios before it crashed, it was before my time. "You were sharing a memory."

"Yeah."

"Why show me?"

"You don't see me as the man I used to be. Mainly because you don't know. And I guess being stuck inside the Helios mainframe with nothing to do kind of humbled me a bit."

I shook my head. "You're wrong, Jack. I do know. I'm friends with Mordecai, Lillith, Maya, Zero, Athena, Brick, Salvadore, Axton and all the other Vault Hunters. Mordecai and Axton taught me how to shoot. I know what they know about you." I looked over at him.

"You know about the murder, the lies, the deceit, all the bad things I've done, and yet you don't hate me."

"I don't hate you and I also don't care about what you've done. You were a man, you were human, you made mistakes. It happens. And things happen for a reason. It's best not to look back and let the past determine your actions now. The past is in the past. You've been awakened again to start anew. You have a blank slate and the option to learn from your mistakes. What are you going to do?"

He looks at me for a minute. "You make a convincing argument, princess, I'll give you that."

"I've had my father and my Uncle Rhys wrapped around my finger since I was two because of it." I smile and he gives a light laugh.

Closing his eyes and bowing his head, he's silent and I watch him. By the intense look on his face, I know he's thinking, but what, I have no idea. I can only hope he makes the right choice.

Finally, he lifts his head and opens his eyes to look at me. "I want to change, to be a better man, but I don't know how." Moving away from the desk he begins to pace and I take a few moments to admire the way he seemed to slink across the floor, like a predator. He had been this handsome badass motherfucker for so long, it became ingrained in the very way he walked.

And fucking hell was it sexy. I already had a crush on this guy and he was a fucking hologram!

Yeah, no way was I telling my dad and Rhys, they'd kill me.

As he paced, I listened. He went on about how he was scared that he would be betrayed again and then outlining all the times he had trusted and been stabbed in the back in return. My heart went out to the poor guy. He had had it rough. He was an asshole and made the mistakes he did because he was trying to protect himself from being betrayed again.  
Rising from the chair I go over to him. "Jack, look at me." He ignored me and continued to pace, clearly worried. I said the one thing that was sure to get his attention. "Hyperion sucks ass."

He spun on me. "Hey now." He was about to scold me and stopped, seeing my smile.

"Got to admit it got your attention." I grinned, smug.

He offered me a smile. "Yeah, it did."

"Listen to me, Jack." I hesitated for a moment. I wanted to touch him, but wasn't sure how that would work, with him being a hologram and all. After a moment, I threw caution to the wind and attempted to place a hand on his cheek. I felt the static tingle in my palm that indicated that I was touching him and tried to keep my hand in place as I spoke. "I may not know you very well, but I do know this. The way you were..." I was about to continue when we heard a crash. Due to the dead silence, it could have been anywhere. All three of us look to the door, where the sound seemed to have originated from. Or at least, that direction.

"Uh, cupcake, was there anyone else here with you?" Jack asks softly.


	3. Chapter 3

This is also on my Wattpad account, OkamiWolf87

* * *

"No. It was just me and Kiki." I replied. "My dad, Yvette, and Rhys knew I was here. Yvette wouldn't step here, and my dad is too scared to come here. At least this far anyway. Rhys is back in Haven, working on a project of his."

A whistling sound is heard and my eyes go wide.

"Get down!" Jack yells and I take a running dive to the side, finding cover as a rocket whistles past to go flying out the window into the mountain beyond. The room shook.

"That's not a bandit. They don't have the money to finance a rocket launcher." I commented. "Kiki!" I call and the Skag bounds over. "You okay, girl?" She softly barks.

"We need to get out of here." Jack tells me. "You die, I die. Grab this first though." He points to something sticking out of the pile of rubble. A bit of tugging and I pull it free. It's a shotgun. Jack drifts over to a spot and looks into a hole. "Good, crash didn't fuck this up. Come on, down here." I go over to him and notice the hole wasn't caused by the crash.

"What is this?"

"Secret escape."

"Of course." I looked at him, amused, as I went down the ladder. I already knew Kiki had left the office and would be looking for a way to me.

"You're mocking me."

"Nah." I drew the word out. "Bad guy having a secret escape in his lair. It's cliché, is all."

"You should have seen it before Helios crashed. This whole passage had lasers, buzzsaws, sawtoothed doors, the works." He looks around. "I guess the crash disabled all of that."

"If it was your secret escape, why have all that?"

"Keep anybody from sneaking up on me."

"Must have been a hell of a gauntlet." I commented. Looking down to gauge how much distance was left, I let go and dropped, landing in a neat crouch.

"Nice landing."

"I've been doing that for years." I rose and looked around. "So where are we now?"

"Prison cells."

I rolled my eyes. "And we complete the cliché." I drawled.

Jack looks back up the passageway. "What about your pooch?"

"Kiki? She'll be fine. We've become separated during our adventures on more than one occasion. We know how to handle it." Lifting my robotic arm, I held my palm up and activated the program that would activate Kiki's locator. "The collar Kiki wears? It houses a device inside near her ear that, when activated, allows her to find me by beeping in a frequency she can hear. The faster the beeps, the closer she is to me."

Jack leaned closer to examine the screen that had popped up from my palm, showing Kiki's location on the floor above us and the surrounding area in a blueprint design. "Nice. You design that?"

"Yup." I grin proudly. "Took us forever to find the right frequency that isn't audible to the human ear. Sometimes, it was too high, and it hurt her ears, other times it was too low and I could hear it. Took months to design the device so it fit in her collar without any interference and then weeks to find the right frequency."

"And this allows you to keep track of her."

"And let her know if she's going the wrong way." Closing my palm, I let the program close and a minimap opened up in my ECHO eye, allowing me to keep track of Kiki when I had to use my hand. "Since my ECHO eye is connected to my hand, I'm able to call up a minimap, which enables me to keep tabs on Kiki's position, and meet up with her if need be. It's configured so that if I'm not focusing on the map itself, it appears invisible, remaining active while still allowing me to see with that eye." I hefted the shotgun. It's black with some red detailing. Not a big fan of shotguns, preferring to go for assault rifles, pistols, and sniper rifles, but I sort of liked this one. And not just because of the color and the fact that I found it in Jack's office. It had a powerful 'I am badass, fear me' vibe to it. "Now that we have a few minutes, what's this?"

Jack smiles proudly. "That, pumpkin, is the Conference Call. A gun so badass, you'll want to call everybody you know and tell them about it."

"Hence its name." I nodded. "I'm more partial to assault guns and pistols with the sniper rifle being my overall favorite, but I'm willing to give it a go and see if it's as badass as you say."

"You'll enjoy it, babe, trust me." He promises as we walk down the corridor. "You mentioned something about you leading Atlas alongside Rhys. So the kid found the document after the crash, huh?"

I nodded. "He told me that his dream was to become the CEO of Hyperion and that got screwed up when the CEO he had been kissing ass to got murdered and some dick took his place. He tries to screw him over by taking his deal only to find out the object of the deal was fake, sending him and Aunt Fiona on this adventure to get back the money which ultimately leads to you trying to take Rhys over with a mechanical body, only for Helios to come crashing to the ground with the ensuing fight, taking his dream with it. Remembering about the title you had to Atlas, he retrieves it and returns to Haven to restart Atlas. It's now back to its former glory as one of the leading weapons manufacturers on Pandora." I lift my head proudly. "I lead the Weapons R&D department, designing and testing every weapon."

He points to the pistol strapped to my thigh and the sniper rifle at my back. "If I'm not mistaken, that pistol is a Maliwan Incendiary and the rifle is Hyperion make. I didn't know Hyperion weapons were still about after this long. I figured everybody got rid of them, especially after what happened."

I patted the rifle fondly. "She was my first find. I restored and improved her."

"Let me see." He requested and drawing the weapon, held her out for his inspection. "Yeah. Uh-huh. Very nice. It looks good. I can tell the improvements." He praised. "Why'd you change the color though?"

"Hard to blend into shadows when your gun sticks out like a sore thumb." I shot back.

He chuckled. "Good point."

"Other than a few improvements to the performance and aiming mechanisms, I didn't mess with anything else." I slipped the gun into its holster over my right shoulder. "I mean, why mess with a classic when it's already powerful?"

"Hyperion did make quality weapons back in the day."

"Original by Hyperion, enhanced by Atlas." I smirk.

Jack gave me a look. "What the hell is that? A sale line?"

I giggle. "Kinda. It's a pet project of mine, finding old Hyperion weapons and shields and improving them."

"Why though?"

"In it's prime, Hyperion was THE company. The best of the best. If you weren't working for Hyperion, you knew people who did. If you were lucky enough to work for Hyperion, you kissed ass to get higher up the ladder. You were a lucky son of a bitch and the envy of all around you if you got to work with one of the leaders of the company."

"You talk as if you know."

"Rhys told me Atlas is the same in that regard. Since I work directly with Rhys, and being his niece, I have had people kiss my ass left and right, for one of two reasons."

"To date you has to be one of them." Jack commented. "I mean, look at you, a hottie like yourself leading one of the biggest companies on Pandora. You must have guys falling at your feet left and right just for a glance."

"Glance, all the time. Date, not so much."

Jack shifted so he was laying on his side as he floated beside me. "A gorgeous girl like you? Why not?"

"Me and Kiki make an intimidating pair. Not many are brave enough to approach a woman who not only plays with guns for a living, but knows how to use them, and has a Badass Skag at her side. Just her size alone scares most guys off."

"You must hate that."

"Not really. It can get a little lonely sometimes, especially when I'm in my lab alone late at night and I have no one to talk to. I can talk to Kiki, but she can't converse with me like a human can. And besides, if a guy is intimidated easily, then he's not for me. I don't want a guy who wants me for what I am, doesn't want me because I'm the CEO's right hand and niece, I want a guy to want me for WHO I am. A guy who I can adventure with, go treasure hunting with. A guy who isn't afraid of facing danger with me." I stop and look at him. "What about you?"

He rolls onto his back and lacing fingers together behind his head, gets a faraway look in his eyes. "Had two wives, and a couple girlfriends. Nothing seemed to work out right for me."

"That sucks. You'll find that right girl some day."

He stood and gestured to himself. "Look at me! I'm a friggin' hologram! Who's going to want me now?"

While he ranted and raged, I turned away, biting the tip of my thumb as I felt my cheeks heat up. I didn't care if he was a hologram or not, I wanted Jack. He was charming, funny, and appreciated my talent. And he didn't feel intimidated by me and Kiki. We could probably talk all day about one topic or another and never get bored with each other's company. I knew I would never get bored of hearing his voice. It had this silky smooth tone that just washed over you. He had that air in his voice that promised you he could turn your greatest dreams into your worst nightmares if you ever got on his bad side.

His voice, his walk, the very air with which he carried himself, told one thing: Handsome Jack was not a man to be messed with. He could fuck you up in a heartbeat if he so chose.

Guys who had sought my affections had been set with standards. Standards only one man could meet. Without knowing it, until now, the standards with which I measured my suitors matched Jack himself. And no man could match the former Hyperion CEO.

"Jack." I decided to speak up and ease his fears. He kept pacing as he ranted, now starting to repeat himself. Moving to be in front of him, I snapped my fingers in front of his face to catch his attention and he stopped, blinking to refocus on me.

"I don't care if you're a hologram, Jack. You're charming, funny, and appreciate my talent. I haven't known you long, but I get the feeling that I can be someone other than the genius prodigy niece of the Atlas CEO. I can be normal. You're not intimidated by me and Kiki."

"It's going to take more than a beautiful woman and her pet Skag to scare me." He replied. "I've faced worse than you." He blinked. "Wait a minute. Don't tell me Rhys fed his crush to you."

I shook my head. My crush on him didn't come from Rhys, it was my own. "I respected the man you had been. You may have been a bit of a dick in your method in which you did it, but there's no denying that you ran things well and knew how to get things done. Hyperion flourished while you were CEO." I unfocused my ECHO eye to bring the map into focus and check Kiki's location. We had stayed in the same area as I explored so I could investigate while waiting for Kiki to find me. She was steadily working her way to me.

Jack folds his arms across his chest. "You just criticized me, praised me, and used flattery in the same shot. Not many can do that and make it sound good." He mused. "I'm liking you more and more."


	4. Chapter 4

My head jerks up to the escape passageway when I hear movement. Watching where I walked so I wouldn't disturb any of the debris, silently made my way back to the hatch and looked up. Somebody was definitely following me. Stepping back toward a wall, I drew my pistol and readied it. I crooked a finger at Jack and he leaned down. "What kind of information is hidden in the Hyperion mainframe that would involve me being hunted for it?" I murmured, keeping my voice to a mere whisper.

"Me, I suppose. Vasquez had Rhys hunted because of me. They think I know some secret information." He replied.

"Do you?"

"No. Any information I had hidden would be in my computer back in my office. Kept under some heavy-duty firewalls and other security measures I designed myself."

I looked back up the passage and at the descending form. "I had found something I couldn't reach by just simply hacking and was about to do a data dive when I woke you up. So I'll have to go back up there since it's not accessible from any other terminal."

"You won't be able to get through it yourself. Rhys needed my help just to hack into my computer." He smirked.

"Yet I managed to get into it easily."

"You said Rhys designed your arm. It's probable that he threw in his hacking upgrade I gave him while he was at it."

I shook my head with a smile. "I'm going to make you eat those words when we get back up there."

He smiled back. "You're fun."

The form dropped down, revealing it to be a male in his thirties with black hair and a trim build.

"No way." I glance at Jack out of the corner of my eye to see his mouth hanging open.

"I find it hard to believe you know this guy concerning how long it's been since you died, and Helios crashed." I murmur without moving my lips.

"I don't know him, per say, I knew his father. Kid's the spitting image of him." He replied. "That's Vasquez's kid. I didn't know he had kids."

"Crap." Vasquez had been the name of the guy who had tried to kill Rhys. Genius child of a former Hyperion employee comes face to face with the child of a former Hyperion boss. Both former Hyperion employees had bad blood with the other and it looked like that had carried onto the next generation. While I wasn't Rhys' kid, I did have Jack linked to me and I was being targeted for Jack.

"This isn't good." Jack frowned. I did the only thing I could think of on the fly. I shot at him, making him dive for cover and ran like hell.

"We got to get out of here." I brought up my hand and spoke into my wrist, which housed the communication device to Kiki's collar. "Meet us at the Hub, Kiki. We got trouble." She barks in reply. I duck and dart around a corner as a rocket blasts a hole through that very corner, missing me by inches. For the first time in years, I felt fear fill me.

"You know where the Hub is?"

"Rhys showed me on an old map of Helios when I first told him I was making plans to explore this place. He figured it would be a good starting point and place to meet up if me and Kiki got separated. It's central enough." I told him.

"Good idea."

Only problem was, since I didn't thoroughly explore this place before encountering Jack's office, I got lost.

"You're lost, aren't you?" Jack asks as I took a wrong turn too many.

It was a few more wrong turns before I was admitting it. "Yeah." I looked at him where he was hovering beside me, smug. "I know you know the way, can you lead me?"

"What's the magic word?" He sang, too amused by this.

"Please." I asked sweetly.

A hologram finger touches my chin, a spark zapping my skin and leaving a pleasant feeling behind. "You know, if I was human, I'd be making you do something else." The look in his eyes was pure mischief.

"I'm not going to get down on my knees and beg. I have my pride." I told him.

"You'd be on your knees, cupcake, but you wouldn't be begging. You wouldn't need to be kneeling if you were begging." The look on his face turns wolfish. I got the full implication. Even for a hologram, Jack was a flirt. And I didn't give a damn if he was a hologram, I'd flirt right back with him.

I now found a purpose and it meant spending long months in my private workshop. I would build Jack a new body and bring him back. Then, doing a data dive into Jack's computer, find all the information I could to rebuild Hyperion.

"What would you say if I said I'd be willing to give a shot at building you a body?" I asked instead of returning the flirt.

He blinked. "You'd do that? Why?"

"You deserve a blank slate, a chance to do things over and make things right." I told him.

"What's the catch?" He turned suspicious.

"You help me rebuild Hyperion and let me lead it with you by my side. We lead it as partners."

I had caught him off guard again. "You want to rebuild Hyperion?"

"It was one of the leading companies in its day and deserves to be rebuilt into something great once again. Rhys knows I have what it takes to lead a company. I'm going to follow in his footsteps and rebuild a fallen company from the ground up. You took down Atlas and he rebuilt it, taking down Hyperion in the process. I want to take Hyperion and rebuild it."

"What about Rhys? What's he going to think?" He asked. "Or for that matter, your dad?"

"I won't tell them you're linked to me. Not yet anyway. They'd both freak out. After what happened, they'd fear for my life and would find a way to separate us. You need me to be whole again and I need you to help me rebuild Hyperion." I told him. "It's going to be a long process to just start rebuilding Hyperion. We have to find a good enough location and then start planning and everything." I paused, tapping my lips as I thought. "I suppose your old Pandora base of Opportunity could do. We'd have to check it out."

"The factory there may be a little dusty on the inside, but I think everything is operational." He replied.

"We get out of here and we'll head over there." I told him.

"You really mean what you said about building me a body and rebuilding Hyperion?"

"I do, Jack. One thing you'll learn about me is that once I give my word, I never go back on it." I told him. "And I give you my word that I will do my damnest to build you a body and rebuild Hyperion."

"I'll hold you to that."

I nodded. "I expect no less, Jack."

He rubbed his hands together in eagerness. "This is going to be good! Let's get to work." His hologram form took off down the hallway and I trotted to keep up.


End file.
